Indonesia aims to reduce ocean waste by 70 percent by 2025

Workers clear up garbage piling up in Jakarta Bay area as part of the earliest local government combat against waste on its waters. (Photo: AFP)

Hanoi (VNA) – Indonesia has set a target to
reduce the amount of waste it dumps into the ocean by 70 percent by 2025 to
protect the environment, according to Pamuji Lestari, a senior official from
the country’s Ministry for Human Development and Cultural Affairs.

The target will be achieved gradually with enthusiastic
involvement from local people in a campaign promoting a plastic waste-free
Indonesia, the official said.

The campaign forms part of a national one to raise public
awareness of the importance of clean environment and many community-based
activist groups have taken part in projects to clean up plastic waste by
motivating people to reduce the use of plastics.

The nation of
17,000 islands is facing a serious environmental problem as it is the world’s second
largest source of plastic waste after China. Due to the poor waste management,
million tonnes of the plastics end up in rivers and ocean.

Last month, residents of the Thousand Islands off
Jakarta’s coast were battling waves of trash, with an estimated 40 tonnes of
rubbish collected daily, while a sperm whale was found dead in a marine park
off Sulawesi island with 115 plastic cups and 25 plastic bags in its stomach.

Last year, popular tourist destination Bali declared a
“garbage emergency” after a 6km stretch of its beach was inundated with a
rising tide of plastic rubbish. –VNA